New environmental and tax laws are accidentally crushing small coffee farmers and handing everything over to giant multinationals.
While intended to protect forests and stop corruption, these regulations have created a 'Compliance Chasm' in Vietnam's coffee industry. Because only massive corporations can afford the high costs of digital plot-mapping and surviving months-long tax audits, the traditional network of small local middlemen is being systematically destroyed.
Navigating Institutional Voids and Regulatory Shocks in Emerging Market Supply Chains
SSRN · 6374139
Global supply chains originating in emerging markets are currently experiencing unprecedented regulatory shocks. In the Vietnamese Robusta coffee sector-centered in the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) provinces of Dak Lak and Lam Dong-these shocks are not singular, but dual. On the external front, the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) mandates rigorous geolocation data for every plot of land producing coffee to guarantee zero deforestation. On the internal front, Vietnam's General De